Hi, Graham Hill here, thank you so much for visiting my blog, I hope you learn a lot and as a result end up driving a great car. In order to do so you can get all the information you need by buying my book, An Insider Guide To Car Finance or use me to finance your next car. Happy driving.

My nephew Tony needed to change his car and saw a great car advertised on the Autoquake website, a Hyundai Coupe. A finance application was easy to make, which he submitted and was approved. He wanted to see the car with his dad before deciding the car was exactly right. So far so good. He then paid his £100 deposit over the phone to hold the car but here was the first problem, they said they only hold the car for 3 days but he works a night shift so couldn’t get there within the 3 day limit. However, they said they would hold the car till the weekend so that he could get there for a Saturday viewing – great news. Tony was pretty convinced that he would have the car so arranged with a buyer to take his old car on the Saturday afternoon. All set and getting excited, then came the call. They phoned on the Friday 21st to say that they had experienced a problem with the immobiliser and couldn’t start the car so they were canceling the appointment for the Saturday. Not only inconvenient but annoying and possibly costly. They still had the £100. It would seem that unknown to Autoquake we are now into the realms of Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act and the control of the Financial Ombudsman Service if this situation isn’t resolved satisfactorily. Autoquake called on Monday 24th to say that the problem was resolved, great. The appointment was re-booked, without an apology, for the following Saturday, 22nd but guess what? They phoned today, Thursday, to say that the central locking won’t work now and that they have it booked into a Hyundai dealer for repair tomorrow but cancelled the Saturday appointment again. WHY? First of all one has to ask how the car could be fixed on the Monday and yet the central locking was not found to be faulty till Thursday. However, having found the fault, surely the dealer can get something as simple as a faulty central locking fixed in a day. Sounds to me like a faulty battery in the remote key or a major fault with Autoquake’s customer service – so far appalling! Tony has now got to cancel yet another appointment to collect his old car and has to pay for the tax on his current car, as of next Tuesday, if it isn’t taken on Saturday. I would suggest that Autoquake pull their shoddy fingers out and get this problem resolved or I’ll be putting out another post tomorrow telling the world and a few hundred journalists who use the RSS feed the sort of experience you get when you use Autoquake! Oh and what did they say when challenged over the problems, ‘well you could always choose another car.’ Hmmm! Watch this space. By Graham Hill, still the world’s number one car finance blogger!

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3 Responses to “Thinking Of An Online Car From Autoquake – Think Again!”

Graham, used cars have faults now and then, relax! At least they called you before you left to go and see it and were honest and open with you? Are you always this short sighted and abrupt? I’ve only read good things about Autoquake for the last 4 years!

John, you obviously don’t read my blog or you would know my style. It’s strange that you should say you have never read anything adverse about them over 4 years, you should visit the moneysavingexpert web site where you will find many posts, some good as well as some bad. Shame I have had to draw attention to the long string on that website as my next blog posting is going to be complimentary. I’m sure Autoquake will thank you! G

I received an email to confirm that the Hyundai Coupe was fixed and ready for inspection at the Autoquake site in Southall on Saturday 12th February at 9.30am. The email expressed the extreme importance of arriving on time. I arrived early to be told that the car was still being valletted – I had to wait until after 10.30am. The Autoquake website describes the cars in detail and includes many photos of the interior and exterior to enable the potential buyer to assess the condition of the car. They quote ‘We don’t want any surprises when you view the car at our site.’ As the only exterior photos of the Hyundai were of the alloy wheels that had sustained some damage I naturally assumed that the bodywork was in extremely good condition. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Within two minutes of it arriving it was clear that the car had not been cared for. The whole car was very badly scratched and a rear light lens was cracked. The salesman looked on in embarrassment and agreed that this was not in an acceptable state and fully understood my decision not to buy it. I feel I have been misled by the Autoqake website. I suggest they add at least a dozen photos to show the major scratches before any other unsuspecting potential buyer wastes time and money visiting their site. I had fully intended buying this vehicle on Saturday if it was exactly as it appeared on the website.

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